California Health and Safety Code 127350 – Each hospital shall do all of the following:(a) By July 1, 1995, …
Each hospital shall do all of the following:
(a) By July 1, 1995, reaffirm its mission statement that requires its policies integrate and reflect the public interest in meeting its responsibilities as a not-for-profit organization.
Terms Used In California Health and Safety Code 127350
- Community: means the service areas or patient populations for which the hospital provides health care services. See California Health and Safety Code 127345
- community benefit: means a hospital's activities that are intended to address community needs and priorities primarily through disease prevention and improvement of health status, including, but not limited to, any of the following:
California Health and Safety Code 127345
- Community benefits plan: means the written document prepared for annual submission to the Department of Health Care Access and Information that shall include, but shall not be limited to, a description of the activities that the hospital has undertaken in order to address identified community needs within its mission and financial capacity, and the process by which the hospital developed the plan in consultation with the community. See California Health and Safety Code 127345
- Community needs: means those requisites for improvement or maintenance of health status in the community. See California Health and Safety Code 127345
- Community needs assessment: means the process by which the hospital identifies, for its primary service area as determined by the hospital, unmet community needs. See California Health and Safety Code 127345
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- department: means State Department of Health Services. See California Health and Safety Code 20
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Hospital: means a private not-for-profit acute hospital licensed under subdivision (a), (b), or (f) of Section 1250 and is owned by a corporation that has been determined to be exempt from taxation under the United States Internal Revenue Code. See California Health and Safety Code 127345
- Mission statement: means a hospital's primary objectives for operation as adopted by its governing body. See California Health and Safety Code 127345
(b) By January 1, 1996, complete, either alone, in conjunction with other health care providers, or through other organizational arrangements, a community needs assessment evaluating the health needs of the community serviced by the hospital, that includes, but is not limited to, a process for consulting with community groups and local government officials in the identification and prioritization of community needs that the hospital can address directly, in collaboration with others, or through other organizational arrangement. The community needs assessment shall be updated at least once every three years.
(c) By April 1, 1996, and annually thereafter adopt and update a community benefits plan for providing community benefits either alone, in conjunction with other health care providers, or through other organizational arrangements.
(d) (1) Annually submit its community benefits plan, including, but not limited to, the activities that the hospital has undertaken in order to address community needs within its mission and financial capacity to the Department of Health Care Access and Information. The hospital shall assign and report the economic value of community benefits provided in furtherance of its plan, and include a description of how needs identified in the assessment are being addressed and which needs are not being addressed, and why. Effective with hospital fiscal years, beginning on or after January 1, 1996, each hospital shall file a copy of the plan with the department not later than 150 days after the hospital’s fiscal year ends.
(2) Hospitals under the common control of a single corporation or another entity may file a consolidated report if the report includes each hospital’s community benefit financial data and describes the benefits provided to the communities in the hospitals’ geographic area. Hospitals on a consolidated license may file a consolidated community benefit plan report if they serve the same geographic area.
(3) Each hospital’s community benefit report shall contain an explanation of the methodology used to determine the hospital’s costs, written in plain English.
(e) Annually post its community benefits plan on its internet website.
(Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 143, Sec. 81. (AB 133) Effective July 27, 2021.)